Investment to help prevent children being taken in to care

15 November 2016

A £500,000 initiative to help prevent children going into care in the county will start next year funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and Wiltshire Council. The council and the charity Pause are working with women who have experienced, or are at risk of, repeated pregnancies resulting in children needing to be removed from their care. The aim is to prevent the damaging consequences of children being taken into care each year. Laura Mayes, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “Children born into this cycle can be adversely affected for the rest of their lives. We will work with Pause to do everything we can to break this cycle for the good of the women and their children. I really think this funding will make a big difference.” In Wiltshire from July 2013 to July 2015 thirty-three woman were identified as having repeat pregnancies which resulted in children being removed from them. Wiltshire will be working with Pause on a project where key workers develop therapeutic relationships with these women to help them deal with drug and alcohol addictions, domestic violence, and mental health issues, and take time to stabilise their lives. The project, which is set to start in April 2017, will work with key partner agencies across Wiltshire including health and voluntary services. Sophie Humphreys, chief executive and founder of Pause said: “We are delighted to have been successful in our bid to the DfE Children’s Social Care Innovation programme. “Thanks to the investment the first new practices in 2017 will be across Barking and Dagenham, Bristol, Cumbria, Derby, NE Lincolnshire, Slough, St Helens, West Sussex and Wiltshire. It will also pilot working with care leavers (aged 18-25) through delivering a preventative programme, aiming to intervene at an earlier stage.” The Department for Education awarded Pause £6.8 million nationally to increase the work of the charity.

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